I am very interested in medieval history. I studied it for a while, but unfortunately I was unable to continue this. After graduating last July I had to make a decision, do I try medieval history again (a further 5 years at university) or do I stay at my current (very nice) job? I decided to stay at my job, mainly because even though I love medieval history, I cannot see myself becoming so good at it to find a job where I need that education. And besides, if I want to know about medieval history, I can just teach myself by reading. So, that was my plan. In England, history is very popular, and this includes medieval history. Unfortunately, in the Netherlands, it is hard to find new medieval history books, and when you do, they’re about twice as expensive. So, anytime I go to London (which is luckily a lot, for business) I try to pick up some new history books.

The time traveller’s guide to medieval England, a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century, by Ian Mortimer is a book I picked up last December. I was intrigued by the idea presented in the book, that we can approach history as though it was a place you visit. In the same way that we can visit London or New York, you can also visit London in 1349 or New York in 1945. It is just an extra dimension, but it adds a lot to your perception. This book tries to be a sort of travel guide to a visitor from the twentyfirst century to the fourteenth century.

The book describes aspects of daily life. It does not concern itself too much with historical events, so you will not find more than a passing mention of big wars, invasions, changes in leadership and big social changes (of which fourteenth century England saw enough). Instead it delves into daily lives and describes things like clothing, relationships, religion, food, housing, law and order etc. Mortimer tries to explain things that seems strange or barbarian to us now, but that were logical for that time. For example, he explains the relationship between man and woman, and the perceptions. He explains that even though women were clearly seen as the lesser of the two, this did not mean they always were. Actually, this offered some advantages to the woman too (a husband who severly abuses his wife is unlawful, because she is weak, however, nobody believes that a wife could abuse her husband, because he is supposedly the stronger of the two). Mortimer never tries to say that these differences are better or worse than our current ways, he just tries to place them into a fourteenth century perspective. It has been said many time, never judge history with our current standards, and this is propogated throughout the book.

All in all the book offers a great insight into daily life and habits of the medieval English, throughout all layers of the population. The book does not presume a great deal of knowledge of the fourteenth century, and never delves very deeply into the reasons why things are the way they are. I am sure a whole study could be done into the footware of males in the fourteenth century, but that would soon be boring for many readers. The fact that Mortimer explains this in no more than a page or two makes the book good to read and a great introduction.

LibraryThing link